HACIENDA HEIGHTS – The discovery here last week of a bacterial disease with the potential to wipe out every citrus tree in California has federal, state and local agencies scrambling to stop its spread.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture has instituted a 93-square-mile quarantine centered over the 60 Freeway and Hacienda Boulevard in Hacienda Heights.

The quarantine prohibits the removal of any citrus fruit from the property on which it is grown unless it is cleaned and commercially packed. Fruit may be processed and/or consumed on the premises.

“The success of any quarantine depends on cooperation from those affected,” said Karen Ross, secretary of the state agriculture department. “The stakes couldn’t be higher for California citrus. We urge residents in the Hacienda Heights area to do all they can to comply.”

The quarantine extends south into into Orange County, north into Baldwin Park and West Covina, west into South El Monte and Whittier and east into Walnut and Rowland Heights.

The quarantine is expected to last at least two years – the length of the latency period for the development of huanglongbing disease symptoms in an infected tree.

Huanglongbing, also known as citrus greening or yellow shoot disease, kills healthy trees within a few years of infection and causes them to produce shrunken, bitter fruit. The disease has infected citrus groves in Asia, Brazil, Mexico and Florida and has no known treatment or cure.

The disease stands to threaten not only California’s nearly $2 billion citrus industry, but treasured backyard trees scattered throughout the state.

The CDFA announced Friday it had discovered a lemon/pummelo tree infected with huanglongbing at a home in Hacienda Heights.

Since then, officials have been going door to door, checking citrus trees for the presence of the disease and insects that can spread it, said Steve Lyle, spokesman for the CDFA.

“That’s substantial work, as at least 50 percent of the residential properties in Southern California have citrus trees,” Lyle said.

Officials expect to begin hand-spraying citrus trees and plants with pesticide next week, Lyle said. Trees within 800 meters of the site where the infected tree was found will be sprayed, he said. A pesticide will also be applied to nearby soil.

And the infected tree in Hacienda Heights will likely be removed this week and any other trees found to be infected will also be removed, even without permission from the homeowners.

The diseased tree in Hacienda Heights was discovered through routine testing, Lyle said.

Ted Batkin, president and CEO of the Visalia-based Citrus Research Board, said a quick response is required. He said authorities in Florida were slow to react to the disease when it was discovered there in 2005. The citrus industry there is now losing 10 to 15 percent of its acreage each year, he said. The University of Florida estimates the disease has cost 6,600 jobs, $1.3 billion in lost revenue to growers and $3.6 billion in lost economic activity.

“If this is allowed to spread unchecked, it has the potential of eliminating all citrus trees from the urban landscape and eliminating the commercial citrus industry in California,” Batkin said.

Detection of the disease has been state citrus growers’ fear since the bug first crossed into San Diego County from Mexico in 2008, potentially threatening California’s fresh citrus market. Despite 25 years of worldwide research, there still are no biological or genetic controls for the disease that keeps fruit from ripening.

The disease is present in Mexico and across the southern U.S., but nowhere is the problem more severe than in Florida.

The bacteria kills citrus plants by infiltrating the vascular tissues of the plants, clogging them, and choking them, Batkin said.

A plant infected with the disease will begin showing yellowing in its leaves and in new shoots, and greening of fruits that shouldn’t be green – going from orange back to green, in the case of oranges, Batkin said.

Batkin said the disease is spread through the unwitting grafting of infected tissue onto a healthy tree, or by the Asian citrus psyllid, a small biting insect.

“They replicate very very quickly,” Batkin said. “If you have a hundred of them today, in 30 days you’re going to have a million of them.”

Most of the bugs do not carry the disease, but if they feed on an infected tree and then move to a healthy tree, they can spread it.

Batkin said if the disease is going to be stopped before it becomes widespread, it’s going to require a collective effort by government agencies, the citrus industry and homeowners who grow citrus trees.

“Go out and look at your trees,” he said. “If you see yellowing spots or if you see something that looks funny, call and report it.”

“We’re in this bucket together,” Batkin said.

Ron Baur, a volunteer who helps maintain the 140-or-so trees in the La Verne Heritage Society’s citrus grove, said the control efforts will present difficulties for the society, which aims to present life as it was in the region in the early 1900s.

Each spring, the society hosts events where the public is invited to pick oranges at the grove for a small fee. Baur said it can be tough to convince people to pick fruit while quarantine signs are posted everywhere, even though the disease poses no threat to humans.

“When they see the quarantine, it’s a red flag,” Baur said.

But he said he hopes the quarantine will succeed at containing the disease.

“If we lose the grove, that’s the whole premise of the historical park,” he said.

Rick Floyd, 57, of East Whittier, grows lemons, oranges, grapefruits and tangerines at his home. He said he heard about the quarantine, but he wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do keep the disease from spreading.

“We’re not too far from this infection,” he said. “We’re hoping it doesn’t happen. It means no more fresh lemonade, and no more fresh blood oranges.”

An informational program about the disease and efforts to control it will be held Thursday from 5:30 to 7 p.m. in the Avalon Room of the Industry Hills Expo Center, 16200 Temple Ave., Industry.

For more information on the disease or efforts to control it, visit cdfa.ca.gov. To report a psyllids or a potential case of the disease, call 800-491-1899.